Monday, June 4, 2012

Medleying In The Open Water

Some swimmers use butterfly the last few meters of their open water swims. Many swimmers roll over on their backs and do backstroke during their swims to relieve their shoulders and necks. Others switch over to breaststroke for a change of pace or to get a better view of what lies ahead.

While all open water swims are technically freestyle events, mixing in butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke is occasionally used by some open water swimmers.

But there are also formal breaststroke open water swimming races held in the Netherlands and elsewhere. And there are also a small subset of open water swimmers who use non-freestyle strokes during their solo marathon swims. Examples of these non-freestyle records in the Catalina Channel and the English Channel include:

Freestyle has never been the only way to go in the open water - Captain Matthew Webb gave a boost to the non-freestyle approach when he crossed the English Channel during breaststroke in 1875. From Chicago to the Netherlands, individuals are doing butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke on their open water swims of all distances.

"There is a small group of swimmers that use non-conventional, non-freestyle strokes - backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, sidestroke and trudgeon strokes to swim the entire distance in open water swimming competitions, relays or solo swims. From the historical point of view, breaststroke was recognized as an official stroke and records posted accordingly. Most of the very early swims were breaststroke."

Despite these special strokes being listed, we are unable to find any records of rules or regulations pertain to the special strokes used in open water. For our pool swimming colleagues, most of the technical rules for the other strokes apply to starts and turns and limit the distance a person could remain underwater.

The interpretation of what FINA considers a legal stokes are in a constant state of review. Also, in the FINA Masters Swimming Rules, a breaststroke kick is permitted in the butterfly. Being practical, the pool stroke rules have little application to open water."

It may be difficult or impossible for the sport of open water swimming to establish and maintain the stroke requirements as so specifically outlined in pool swimming. Petranech outlines examples of items that the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame is considering in open water swimming events. Its board of directors will discuss and develop reasonable guidelines for the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Record a Swim Program on September 21st in Long Beach.*

1. Several organizations require that a swimmer start onshore, walk into the water, start swimming and finish after they clear the water on the opposite shore. Swimmers still need to conform to this requirement, but backstrokers need not walk in backwards and breaststrokers do not need to simultaneously touch the opposite shore with two hands.

2. It is impossible to maintain an acceptable stroke treading water while feeding or taking a short rest break. Swimmers need the latitude to stop using the stroke of choice during these periods. If a swimmer takes frequent feedings, the total number of stops may seem rather large. Feeding every half hour in a 10-hour swim means that swimmer would have up to twenty interruptions in the chosen specialty stroke. Breaks in the traditional specialty swim stroke would result in only brief periods when the swimmer was treading water. As long as no major distance (e.g., over 2 meters) is covered during these feeding stops, the swim can be considered a non-stop specialty stroke swim.

3. Because of surf conditions, the swimmer may be battered about and not be able to keep their precise stroke symmetry at all times or may be rolled over from his/her backstroke position. In these and similar situations, the swimmer cannot be held responsible for not maintaining a proper stroke according to traditional pool swimming rules.

4. If a swimmer has an encounter with marine life (e.g., sharks or jellyfish) or becomes entangled in seaweed, flotsam or jetsam, the swimmer may not be able to keep their precise stroke symmetry at all times or may be shocked from their normal specialty stroke position. In these and similar situations, the swimmer should be allowed a reasonable time and distance to free themselves from immediate danger or risk of injury.

5. If swimmers so designate their swim as following the acceptable masters pool swimming rule, swimmers may use the masters swimming rule permitting a breaststroke kick while swimming butterfly.

6. As fatigue sets in butterfly or the water conditions get very rough, swimmers may have problems getting their arms completely out of the water that could result in a sideward splash and technically an illegal stroke from the perspective of a pool swimming official. The proposal calls for acceptance of these situations until the swimmer is no longer able get their arms out of the water. In these cases, the swimmer and observer would acknowledge the situation and could declare the special stroke swim over with the option of continuing freestyle.

7. In the case of nighttime swimming during a backstroke swim, swimmers may temporarily lose sight of their escort boat. In these cases, an ability to overlook a rolling over on the stomach or side should be allowed for safety purposes.

8. If swimmers decide to abandon the special stroke swim for any reason (e.g., safety, lack of an ability to see), they can always continue swimming as a freestyle swimmer.

1 comment:

Thanks for publishing this article. I look forward to seeing what the board of directors decides to do with alternative stroke swims. As a long distance breaststroker it is nice to hear that this issue is on the radar of the open water community.

The Other Shore

The Other Shore follows world record holder and legendary swimmer Diana Nyad as she comes out of a thirty-year retirement to re-attempt an elusive dream: swimming 103 miles non-stop from Cuba to Florida without the use of a shark cage. Her past and present collide in her obsession with a feat that nobody has ever accomplished. At the edge of The Devil’s Triangle, tropical storms, sharks, venomous jellyfish, and one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, all prove to be life-threatening realities. Timothy Wheeler’s documentary brings Diana Nyad’s extraordinary adventure to life as Diana sets out to prove that will and determination are all you need to make the unimaginable possible.LEARN MORE...

2014 Open Water Swimming Almanac

An Almanac for Open Water Swimming

An almanac is essentially a body of knowledge which is so complete that it enables people in different fields to make predictions about the future of their respective industries.

This, for example, was the purpose of the traditional farmers almanacs. It enabled farmers to determine as accurately as possible which crops to plant for the greatest harvests in a given year.

But the farmers almanac was just one example among many. There are, of course, many different kinds of almanacs.

Open Water Personality Test

Professional Open Water Coaching

Ocean Games In New Jersey

FINIS Instinct

FINIS Agility Paddles

Driven, A Documentary Film

DVD's and Download Available October 19

Nejib Belhedi at 6,100m Altitude

The Other Shore

One of the World's Top Open Water Swim

Open Water Swimming in Italy

SWIM THE ISLAND is the ultimate open water swimming event taking place in the fascinating Marine Protected Area of Bergeggi, in the north-west coast of Italy. The event takes place in an absolutely spectacular natural setting, offering swimmers the vision of one of the most extraordinary seabeds of the Mediterranean sea.